Ariza3 wrote:a ton of no calls by the refs on dwight. def was getting held all game and i feel they were really happy with the whistle with 3 seconds and offensive fouls.

i have a feeling laker fans are gunna be very frustrated with refs this season on dwight. dwight and metta were frustrated with the refs for sure this game

thats how its been with dwight his entire career. you'll just notice it more now that hes on our team.

Lol. This is so true. If Dwight got all the calls that he deserved, he'd average 15+ free throws a game. I think big men in general don't get a lot of love from the refs. They didn't call a lot of whistles that Yao Ming deserved when he used to play.

Ariza3 wrote:a ton of no calls by the refs on dwight. def was getting held all game and i feel they were really happy with the whistle with 3 seconds and offensive fouls.

i have a feeling laker fans are gunna be very frustrated with refs this season on dwight. dwight and metta were frustrated with the refs for sure this game

thats how its been with dwight his entire career. you'll just notice it more now that hes on our team.

Lol. This is so true. If Dwight got all the calls that he deserved, he'd average 15+ free throws a game. I think big men in general don't get a lot of love from the refs. They didn't call a lot of whistles that Yao Ming deserved when he used to play.

Well.... our other center and our SG used to get the same treatment so most of us are already "conditioned"....

Sometimes not getting a foul with Dwight might be a good thing unless he can become a better free throw shooter.

2 of the "3 second violations" tonight were on Kobe.... that may never happen again.

"If the past sits in judgment on the present, the future will be lost." Winston Churchill

“The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present - and is gravely to be regarded."Dwight Eisenhower

"Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it"Thomas Sowell

Yep, I lived in Orlando and watched most of their games, and the refs seemed to turn a blind eye to alot of the fouls his opponent would commit. Im guessing because they figured if they did called them all the other team's big men would all foul out by the 3rd quarter.

Most of his FTA's came from intentional fouls because they know he sucks at shooting them. Funny thing is sometimes they'd become so used to getting away with crap that when they did go to foul him intentionally to put him on the line, they'd have to over-do with a really hard foul it just to get the refs attention. Dwight obviously didn't enjoy this much.

"Come hell or high water we're gonna be there again. Its just something about the Lakers organization. Mitch is really, really good at it, he's really really good man...."

UCLA, Los Angeles, CA. Born and Raised. In Dr. Buss I Truss! THE ORIGINATOR OF: "Call It From Heaven Chick!" "To be removed if the Lakers make the playoffs." Well, I removed it for an hour and decided to put it back. I have to be honest.

We know AB was capable of those kinds of games, but the next game would be a stinker. Dwight looks like he'll fit in without being a big old black hole needing to hold the ball for half the shot clock. This team is going to be ssooo much better without AB on it...

UCLA, Los Angeles, CA. Born and Raised. In Dr. Buss I Truss! THE ORIGINATOR OF: "Call It From Heaven Chick!" "To be removed if the Lakers make the playoffs." Well, I removed it for an hour and decided to put it back. I have to be honest.

Actually a rusty Dwight comes in and easily gives you 19/12...also he was very active on defense which is something Bynum did only in stretches...and then he would go back to offense only.

Very encouraging game from him...even though again all starters played heavy minutes and we lost to one of the 5 worst teams in the league while getting our azz handed to us in the second half as has been the case the entire pre-season.

"It is not how big you are, it is how big you play""Basketball doesn't build character. It reveals it""Be strong in body, clean in mind, lofty in ideals"

LOS ANGELES – The noise had grown louder and louder now, tumbling out of the rafters of the Staples Center, tumbling out of the championship banners and retired jerseys, tumbling out of the cheap seats and down to the beautiful people. Out of the darkness of the pregame introductions, out of the darkness of back surgery and rehabilitation and a long, twisting and sometimes self-sabotaging journey to these Los Angeles Lakers for Dwight Howard, these cheers were the sweetest sound he had heard in a long, long time.As the bright lights of the Hollywood stage enveloped Howard in the embrace of a deafening din, the strangest thing happened to the planet's most dominant, most indomitable force: The moment moved him to tears."Emotional," Howard would say outside his locker Sunday night. "A very humbling experience."

On the occasion of his preseason Lakers debut, perhaps his truest and most important introduction to this most scrutinized job in sports – center for the Los Angeles Lakers – had come after the tears and ovation and his teammates pranking him by pushing Howard to lead them out of the tunnel – only to stop and let him run out there alone. For one, Kobe Bryant doesn't do basketball laugh tracks, nor condone them."I don't play those games," he grumbled later.

Between the big noise and a big performance of 19 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks from Howard, Bryant met his new center on the way to the opening jump, clenched the hands of the man brought to Los Angeles to help him win more championships and belted out a most unmistakable mandate: "Let's play some [expletive] ball."

Let's play some mother-bleeping ball, the perfect mantra for this staggering starting five that marched together to the floor for the first time. Howard. Bryant. Steve Nash. Pau Gasol. Metta World Peace. If the public was impressed with Howard's performance in his first game since back surgery ended his Orlando Magic career in March, the Lakers were far less so, because they had been witnessing the old Howard for some time now in training-camp practices.

Dwight Howard had 19 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks in his Lakers' debut. (Getty Images)No one stressed a 99-92 preseason loss to the Sacramento Kings – even with coach Mike Brown thrusting all the starters back onto the floor in the final minutes – because 22 turnovers told them they're still missing reads on the Princeton offense, still trying too hard to defer to the magnificent talent surrounding them.

At different times, to different degrees, Nash would say, all five of the Lakers starters have been the dominant offensive player on NBA teams. The challenge is "trying to fit in with each other, while at the same time exploit your talent. …At times we press, and at times we misread each other."

From the moment the Lakers made the trade for Howard in August, Bryant had insisted this offense would go through him, and he tried so hard to deliver that message on Sunday night. All of them did. Over and over, the Lakers played pick-and-roll with Howard, tossed him lob dunks – some thunderously finished, some sloppily missed – and everyone could live with the loss, because they understood that Howard needed to get Sunday out of the way.

Howard had to play those 33 minutes, and get up again after everyone gasped at the thud of DeMarcus Cousins slamming him onto his back. "I'm going to have some tough falls, because I play hard, and I like to block all the shots," Howard said.

These Lakers don't wonder defensively about Howard, because they already see the way he's going to change everything for them there. Yet Bryant has gone out of his way to push Howard to become a far more complete offensive player, to, in his words, "challenge him to do more than just screen-and-roll and dunk. We want opposing teams to see him as a dominant force."

For so many reasons, Bryant hated the hijinks some of his teammates unleashed on Howard before the game. Bryant has gone out of his way to make sure Howard understands the glare of playing for the Lakers is unrelenting and unyielding. For all the talent surrounding Howard – all the offensive talent that he never had in Orlando – he doesn't want Howard falling into any false security that somehow he doesn't have to grow his game, that somehow he can rely on what's always worked in the past.

There won't be too many Lakers nights like this for Howard, where no one much minded the final score. It matters here, the way it matters in few other sporting places. This was a night of ovations and cheers and welcoming warmth for Howard, but it won't last long for him. At times, Howard had been prickly over his treatment in Orlando – over the media, over the smallest of slights real and perceived – and some around him still believe he has no idea how easy he had it there. These are the Lakers, and everything's different now. From Chamberlain to Abdul-Jabbar, O'Neal to Bynum, this is where centers are demanded to deliver multiple championships.

Kobe Bryant has made clear he wants Howard to expand his offensive game. (AP)The beautiful basketball minds of Bryant and Nash and Gasol have been taking inventory on the way Howard opens everything for them, the way he makes the game so easy. When Howard's preseason debut was over, the emotion and nerves and natural uncertainty made for a blurring evening."I even forgot some of my pregame rituals," Howard said. "I'll get it back."Yes, he'll get it all back again, but the Lakers want more out of him, more than he had been with the Magic. And perhaps that's the blessing and curse of coming to a franchise where the standards are so staggering, where such gifted teammates come with conditions.As Howard passed Bryant's locker on the way to the showers on Sunday night, the Lakers captain bumped his fist and asked Howard: "How did it feel bro?""Good," Howard nodded. "Good."The tears were long gone now, and Dwight Howard's eyes could see clearly: Orlando was gone, and the bright lights of the big city finally belonged to him. On Howard's way to the floor for the first time in a Lakers uniform, Bryant had told him to let's play some mother-bleeping ball, and that wasn't so much of a request, as it was a demand.For all the magnificent noise tumbling down out of the rafters on Sunday night, that one voice – and those five words – was the truest, most honest welcome Dwight Howard will ever get with these Los Angeles Lakers.

Kingsama wrote:I think the new offense and the passing of the starters is going to result in a lot of easy buckets and second chance points. Its going to be fun to watch teams try to figure out who to double off of.

Yeah, for right now the passing is just a little too much and in a little bit of the wrong spots and areas. We're trying too hard to integrate and not hard enough to just mesh if that makes any sense. Basically the entire team is trying SO HARD to play within the offense and to find looks for each other that no one has really just played their game at all.

I'm looking specifically at Steve Nash and Antawn Jamison. The only guys that are playing 100% like themselves and pretty much what we'll see from them this season: Bryant, Peace, and Gasol. Obviously these are the Championship guys and they're the ones who are most comfortable. But Nash, Howard, and the entire bench except maybe Ebanks all look like they aren't sure yet. That'll come.

Howard to his credit played very close to what he was in Orlando. The scary thing is... 19/12 is pretty much an average game for him. The 4 blocks and 2 assists are a little more than we can expect probably, but everything else about him from this game was something we can expect EVERY night.

It was GREAT to see Howard on the court yesterday! He looked pretty stunning especially for much of that first half. He is the real thing, no doubt, and it's incredible to have him here as part of our team.

His free throwing really is atrocious, but hopefully it won't be our undoing - he definitely needs to continue to work on that in a big way.

But man, his activity on the floor was phenomenal. He is such a powerful rebounder and shot blocker. We all knew it but it's so incredible to have that on your team. He and Kobe have a nice rapport out there already, too. Some great pick and roll action with those two.

It'll take a little more time for Nash and Howard to develop the kind of pick and roll chemistry they need to have. The few times they went to it in the second half it didn't really work out. Can't wait til they get it down more.

Howard seemed to run out of gas last night, too, which is to be expected after so much time off. But yeah, for the most part though he looked pretty phenomenal. So glad to have him here.

gcclaker wrote:Still have no TWC so all I have seen are the highlights. That one sequence of Howard being hit and landing hard on the floor made me cringe.

^^ I don't either, but the posters here have been great about digging up links online and sharing them. While it's a drag to be stuck watching on a computer, I'll take what I can get. Yeah, that moment was really scary. Whew!